Thick dust swirls through the air of northwestern India in this true-color Terra MODIS image from April 17, 2004. Normally, this scene would be full of rich green and ochre colors, but the veil of thick brown dust sweeping across the scene mutes the color range. The dust is especially thick at the upper center of the image, where the border of Pakistan and India meet. The Indus River Valley's muted green shows at upper left, while the foothills of the Himalayas' Siwalik Range are almost completely obscured by a thick river of dust (upper right).

Scattered throughout the scene are a few bright red dots; these dots represent locations where the MODIS instrument detected active fires.